Sabudana ladoo recipe With step by step photos – a sweet recipe which is good for fasting as well as during festival days.
Sabudana or tapioca pearls is one ingredient which is much used during fasting or vrats in India. You can make variety of Recipes with sabudana like Sabudana khichdi, Vada, Thalipeeth, Kheer, Tikki or cutlets with them.
This method of making sabudana ladoos were shared by my mom. She had seen this on a tv show. She only saw the way these ladoos are made and told me the method. I had no inkling of the quantity of the ingredients that need to be used. So just eyeballed everything and made the recipe.
The original one uses ghee. I have used oil. Now the difference between using oil and ghee is quite apparent in sweets like ladoos. Firstly the ladoos don’t have the aroma of ghee. Secondly after cooling down, the ghee will solidify at room temperature and give a nice hold and shape to the ladoos. This does not happen with oil. The ladoos do hold shape but not like the ones made with ghee. The ladoos made with ghee are dense but the ones made with oil are a little loose.
Coconut oil works well as a substitute for ghee. However, since the ladoos have already desiccated coconut in them, I did not add coconut oil. I did not want too much of coconut flavor in these ladoos.
I have added hot oil later too, as I realized that the 4 tbsp oil I used to fry the cashews was not enough to bind the ladoos. With all the limitations and setbacks, these ladoos were good. They do stick in the teeth as its the nature of tapioca pearls to become sticky and gluey.
Despite this, The sabudana ladoos tasted awesome and you will like them even more, if you are fond of having coconut in sweets. So do give this sabudana ladoo a try if you are looking for a different variety of ladoo, you want to make for festive or fasting occasions.
Few more Ladoo recipes on the blog which you might like to check are Dry fruits ladoo, Atta ladoo, Motichur laddu, Rava ladoo and Ragi ladoo recipe.
Sabudana ladoo recipe details below:
Sabudana Ladoo
Ingredients
- 1 cup sabudana (tapoica pearls)
- ¾ cup desiccated unsweetened coconut
- ½ or ⅔ cup powdered sugar or as required
- 6 to 6.5 tablespoon oil or ghee
- 9 to 10 cashews, chopped
- 4 to 5 green cardamoms, powdered
- ¼ teaspoon grated nutmeg (jaiphal)
Instructions
- Roast the sabudana (tapoica pearls) in a kadai or pan on a low flame.
- They will swell a bit and become crunchy and light brown.
- This process will take approx 25 to 30 minutes on a low flame.
- Cool the pearls completely and then grind to a fine powder in a dry grinder.
- Also lightly roast the coconut for 2-3 minutes.
- No need to brown the coconut.
- In the same pan where you have roasted the coconut, add the ground sabudana powder and sugar.
- Mix well and keep aside.
- Heat the 5 or 6 tbsp oil/ghee in a small pan.
- Add chopped cashews and fry them till golden.
- Pour this whole mixture of oil and browned cashews into the sabudana + coconut + sugar mixture.
- Also add cardamom powdered and nutmeg.
- Stir very well with a spatula or wooden spoon.
- Then when the mixture is still lightly hot or warm, make medium sized balls from it.
- Sabudana ladoo are ready to be served.
- You can also store sabudana ladoos in an air tight container in the fridge for a week.
Nutrition Info (approximate values)
Lets start step by step sabudana ladoo recipe:
1. roast the sabudana (tapioca pearls) in a kadai or pan in a low flame. This step takes a long time… About 30 mins. You have to stir continuously. The pearls swell a bit and become crunchy and light brown when nicely roasted. If you bite, they won’t be crisp as fried sabudana pearl….. But you can bite into it.
2. As mentioned above, this process of roasting take approx 25 to 30 minutes on a low flame. You can see in the pic the color and texture of the pearls. Cool the pearls completely and then grind to a fine powder in a dry grinder.
3. lightly roast the desiccated coconut for 2-3 minutes.  no need to brown the coconut.
4. in the same pan where you have roasted the coconut, add the ground sabudana powder.
5. Add powdered sugar and mix well.
6. heat oil/ghee in a pan. add chopped cashews and fry them till golden.
7. Pour this whole mixture of oil and browned cashews into the sabudana mixture. also add cardamom powdered and nutmeg.
8. mix very well.
9. when the mixture is still slightly hot or warm. Make medium sized balls from it.
10. Make all the ladoos in a similar way. Sabudana ladoo are ready to be served.
11. You can also Store the sabudana ladoos in an air tight container in a fridge for a week or so. Enjoy the sabudana ladoos.
It’s unique and tasty. I tried this for krishna janmastami. It came out very well. Thanq for the new sweet item.
thanks swathi for this review. glad to know.
The ladoo is harder and not soft as shown in picture. Can you please let me know why?
try adding some more ghee or oil and then shape the ladoos. also the sabudana has to be roasted very well. if they are even slightly raw, the ladoos won’t have a soft texture.
I want to make sabudana laddoo; can I used fresh coconut instead of dessicated coconut?
you can use. but just roast the fresh coconut on a low flame till it becomes slightly dry. no need to brown the coconut.
I try all your recipes..very good website..thank you..
Ladoo is good..it came nicely but it is very sticky
thanks madhavi. do you mean sticky in the texture or in the taste. in the taste stickiness will be there as sabudana becomes sticky when cooked. i have mentioned this point in the post too.
I’m gonna try this for my mom…hope she likes this
All of your recipes are delicious
Thanks alot for sharing those dishes I’ve tried 2 paneer dishes which were fab..!!
thanks for the feedback pranali. hope your mom likes these sabudana ladoos.
I love this website…. unfortunately, My ladoos didn’t bind… had to use a spoon 😛 … still liked the taste…
thanks. unsure why the ladoos could not bind. but glad that you liked them.
Amazing.. I am very much fond of desserts nd i keep visiting ur site nd trust me everytime my reaction is outstanding..ur way of sharing recipes is too gud..u tll about every pros and cons related to the dish.. I tried this recipe and my whole family liked it.. Thnx alot for sharing awsum recipes with us!! ?
welcome jannat. glad to know this. thanks for sharing positive feedback on recipes.
Sir,
Thank you for ur recipe. I saw this yesterday night and I tried it today and it realy worked well and my children loved it. Thank you very much for this recipe. I could not imagine that sabudaana can be made into ladoos. Very tasty, crunchy and easy to make.
welcome mangala. yes, these ladoos with sabudana taste very good. thanks for sharing the positive review.
I like
i mean ur blog on the whole esp kajusweet n dry fruit ladoo
thanks 🙂
well pleased . .
its easy to cook recipie ilike it 🙂
iam also new one to this site thnks.
welcome nadiya
Wow, sabudana laddus are looking so nice. I will try on a fasting day, when we can eat sabudana.
thanks sadhna
Just tried it… Its really nice nd easy to cook… Thnks for posting… 🙂
welcome vani
This recipe seems very easy n a different dessert for many festivals n vrats..i have made this at hom n enjoyed
Wish u all very happy Ganesh Chaturthi festival ,Thank You Very much.
Wish you the same, Umesh
That’s Indian real dish I like it very much,Thank you.
These look delicious! I’ve never tried this before, but I feel very intrigued to do so 🙂
I will surely try this out .Looks tasty
adorable laddoos, sabudana is an unusually good ingredient to be made into ladoos 🙂
interesting
Hi Dassana, I didnt know that you are a Vegan. I am wondering how difficult it would have been for you initially to cook Indian Desserts since Milk and ghee are used extensively in Indian sweets. What are the options that you use for substituting then ?
Which brand and quality of Coconut Oil do you use ? I have never cooked with Coconut oil and would like to try 🙂 Cheers
Nupur
hi nupur. it does become challenging for indian sweets. i use almond milk for making most of the indian sweets like gajar halwa, barfi etc. kheers i make with almond or coconut milk. to give a khoya like effect i use almond meal. there is no substitute for ghee. so either i use vegetable oil or coconut oil. i use the virgin coconut oil which is usually sold in bottles in goa. its pure coconut oil without any additives etc.
Your blog is really interesting and well organized . Thanks a lot for sharing all the tasty food recipes.
Can you please tell, using coconut oil has impact in blood cholesterol?
Most say it has saturated fat and not healthy for who already has cholesterol . Grated Coconut or coconut milk are mostly used for sweets and vegies. Please share your experience as I am searching on this as my parents hv cholesterol even though they use coconut as milk in food.
thanks hayanthi. nice to know that you are so concerned about your parents. i am not an expert in this, but i asked one of our team members dr anupama and this is what she had to say –
generally speaking, the exact amount of calories and fat needed varies from person to person, their activities, their health conditions etc. especially if already known to be suffering from high cholesterol, cardo vascula diseases, diabetes etc, they have to follow the specific diet advised by their dietician/doctor/nutritionist only.
interestingly – (in an article in BMJ British Medical Journal (september 2015)- which is a highly accountable and reliable Medical journal), they say even the fact, that high consumption of saturated fat being connected to CVD, diabetes etc is inconclusive. this is because they say, the studies have not used systematic methods to come to conclusions.)
yes, some say that coconut oil has the saturated fat which can cause/worsen cardiovascular disease (CVD). but some others say it has the medium chain triglycerides which is used as fuel by the body and not the long chain fatty acid which gets stored.
more research is needed (http://www.webmd.com/vitamins-supplements/ingredientmono-1092-coconut%20oil.aspx?activeingredientid=1092&activeingredientname=coconut%20oil)
this fat is said to be responsible for slowing down the breakdown of carbohydrates in the food thereby slow rise in blood sugar and therefore said to be beneficial in diabetes. but again webMD says more research is need to prove this.
when it comes to health benefits, then coconut oil is said to have a higher smoke point (the point at which it smokes and breaks down to give free radicals which are harmful causing damage to our cells, in tune which may lead to mutations and cancers in our cells)so it is good for baking, stir frying but not deep frying, which is one ‘healthier’ aspect.
in general more research is needed to prove all, its health benefits. importantly, this ‘research’ in the food industry is more difficult than many other industries because of the bias that is caused by companies and brands.
vegetarian diet itself is very low in cholesterol as compared to meat, eggs etc! and there’s no conclusive evidence for a diet to reduce cholesterol. your parents need to seek medical advice.
one very important reason being – 80% of cholesterol in the body is produced in the body! and is essential for the cell membranes, some hormones! in some people unfortunately due to genetic reasons or reasons unknown, the enzyme which helps in production of cholesterol is high. So it’s not always diet related.”
i would say moderation is the key and have everything in moderation and balance.
Good and nutritious ladoos.. My mom makes similar ladoos with roasted gram dhal..
thanks. similar ladoos are made with chana dal and even peanuts.
Wow, I have not even heard about these, let alone tasting. Have to try now.
Looks really good, should be nice, lovely clicks as usual 🙂
Beautifully made ladoos..
thanks suhani.